I'm in a bit of a rush to get to a friends house, so I'll cut to the chase:

Just got back from a winter camping trip in the White Mountains and my MSS is soaked from sweat (both condensation from my body heat and high humidity, and my own body's secretions). I tried googling and searching ZS but can't quite find out what setting/how washable these things are. What I'm most worried about is the Gore-Tex bivvy cover. Is there anything I need to do to make sure it retains its magical properties?

If nobody knows, I'm going to put it on my machine's hand wash setting with only a dash of high efficiency detergent. I'll do three loads for each section, and the Gore-Tex is going to get an extra rinse cycle for safety.

God damn this thing was warm the past three nights.

-Sam

EDIT: As far as the Gore-Tex layer, I don't know why I didn't find this my first time through:

There is a special soap I used to buy and have to get more of from EMS that was used to wash the Gortex material. If you use plain laundry soap it will clog the pores in the membrane of the material and render it useless for breathablitiy/water repellant. Tumble dty with little or no heat as you do not want to melt the layers of the material and make it useless.Its called if memory serves me right: Revivex and Nikwax or something along those lines.

I would say that's a good idea for a down based bag, but these are made of polarguard/primaloft continuous filament so I'm not sure it's necessary as the fiber doesn't clump like down.

I've always done it for both. Maybe it's not needed, but I like my tennis balls extra dry too... One thing is for sure do NOT use a tennis shoe it can rip the stitching it the baffles, then you have insulation moving our of where it's supposed to be.

_________________Broken1

“We cross our bridges when we come to them and burn them behind us, with nothing to show for our progress except a memory of the smell of smoke, and a presumption that once our eyes watered.”